Improvement in railway-rai ls



UNITED STATES PATENT OEEIcE.

SILASl NIGHOLLS, OF WESTMIN STER, ENGLAND.

IMPROVEMENT IN RAILWAY-RAI Ls.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 222,302, dated December 3, 1879; application filed October 4, 1879.

To all 'whom it may concern: V

Be it known. that I, SrLAs NIcHoLLs, of Westminster, England7 have invented a new and useful Improvement in Railway-Rails; and I do hereby declare 'that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same.

My invention relates to an improvement in tramway-rails specially designed for use with the invention for which I have obtained Letters Patent in the United States, dated August 12, 187 9, No. 218,559; and it consists in a rail constructed of parallel lengths, or half-rails, of channeled iron or steel of j shaped section, bolted or riveted together, as above mentioned, with their channeled sides outward, and with cast-iron spacing-blocks between.

The accompanying drawings illustrate the invention as applied to the construction of tramway forwhich the aforesaid patent was granted-to me.

Figure l is a plan of a portion of the improved tram-rail, and Fig. 2 a cross-section of the rail and bed-plate. Fig. 3 is a section of the rail, drawn to a larger scale, showing the parts separated.

' -The rail is composed of the two parts G G',

of channeled or j-shaped iron or steel, separated by cast-iron spacing-blocks H, to admit the Iianges of the wheels between them. The two parts G G are united by rivets I passing through holes therein and in the spacingblocks. Each half-rail is rolled with two shoulders or ribs, g,.on the inner side, at a distance from the surface of each head of the rail equal to the required depth of the groove a for the wheel-flanges. It-will be seen that this groove is of the full width at the upper part, but is gradually contracted or V-shapeddownward, the opposite faces of the shoulders g being inclined to an angle corresponding to the outline of the wheel-flange,` which is slightly coned, as usual; but I do not limit myself to this form, as the said-faces might be vertical or parallel to thisweb lof the rail.

Between the two shoulders g ofeach halfrail a channel or groove about onefourth of an inch deep, (more or less,) and of a-breadth equal to the height of the spacing-pieces H, is formed, and the spacing-pieces Vi in the grooves in both half-rails and'lock the two -with cast-iron spacing-blocks between, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

The above specification of my invention signed by me this 9th-day of July, 1879.

SILAS NICHOLLS.

Witnesses:

NEWTON WAR-BURTON, ALEXR. HALLIDAY. 

